We recently connected with Karissa Tuttle and have shared our conversation below.

Karissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

Our donut business started off as only a husband and wife team working our day jobs and working nights and weekends on our donut truck. Fast forward 1.5 yrs later we evolved into our first shop and truck combined. This required us to hire for the first time and we didn’t know how many to hire. We hired mostly local kids in highschool or entering college. Over hired even b/c we had no idea what volume was going to be like in our little community. Over hiring was a good idea b/c it allowed us to weed out the bad ones and we knew not everyone was going to stay. But you have to fine tune your hours and know when to cut people. We are now two stores and two trucks making it even harder b/c we need more people and can’t find them. We have learned that every generation works very differently. Not how my husband and I were raised but we have to learn and adapt just like they have to.
Labor is always the biggest expensive and always going to be a challenge to stay well staffed, especially today. We are always hiring. We are now 7 yrs in and have had almost 100 employees in this time b/t two shops and trucks. Coming and going. Some have stolen from us- money & time- some have left but remain friends, some just don’t know how to work or appreciate what you can learn. Working with so many personalities is hard.
It has taken us about 5-6 yrs to finally get a team of people we enjoy & trust but it has taken time to realize to hang on to the good ones anyway you can.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

After graduation college, I landed a great opportunity in corporate America. Worked with them for 9 yrs where I really gained skill sets that set me apart from other small businesses. Things like communication, organization, financials, presenting, and so on. What led me to donuts was when my husband and I moved to Atlanta we realized at the time there weren’t many donut shops but I came from Dallas, Tx were there are hundreds!!! of donut shops. One of my first words was “donut” and grew up eating them my whole childhood. I was turning 30 and needed a change after 9 yrs in the office so we bought our food trailer and equipment and started testing the waters on the streets of Atlanta. 1.5 yrs in my husband and I left our other jobs and started donuts full time. Now going on 8 yrs and working on some big things to keep us moving forward :)
I am beyond amazed on where we have taken this. Most of our family and friends didn’t expect this to pan out but Joe and I did. We could see the vision from the beginning but this has been the HARDEST thing we’ve ever done. We have sacrificed a ton to get to this point- sometimes even our marriage. When folks say they want to start their own business I really challenge them to stop and think about it. I still have moments where I want to quit b/c the stress is overwhelming at times. If your heart is in the business then people will hurt you & I’m an emotional person. I do miss the regular hours of corporate, pay, benefits, vacations but we’ve grown tremendously individually and as a couple. This isn’t an easy way to make money but it is something we can be proud of and say WE DID IT! TOGETHER!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This is probably the biggest first hurdle for most wanting to start their business. How will you get it going with the money you have? Well I was really blessed to have saved up quite a bit from my corporate job and I flipped a home back in Dallas that allowed to save up even more. But we didn’t want to jump in right away on a brick and mortar. That is a HUGE investment and we didn’t know if we would do well. Hence, why we started as a food truck. $25k all in and we started making money immediately. Paid it all off the first few months & then saved everything we made. After a year of working two jobs, I quit my day job and we built our donut shop. We did take out a $75k loan from Chase bank but paid that off within the first year of being open b/c we didn’t need it. I had saved up most.
I like to be prepared which is why I took out the loan for unexpected expenses but also give me some cushion so as not to deplete all my funds. Then once money was coming in from the business and felt comfortable I quickly paid the balance on the bank loan to get rid of all debt and we keep investing profit into the business today to keep growing.
Our approach to this journey wasn’t a super risky one. We kept money coming in by working our day jobs, invested very little, and made money immediately. Saving everything along the way.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Honestly, from the start it was us. Joe and I. People got to meet us at events and see we genuinely love taking care of people and making them smile. We are fun people! We met so many people doing this ourselves and we still run the truck. Meeting new people all the time and from all over. No one is going to care about your business as much as you but as you grow you start to step away from things and those fans see you less and less. People will come into our shop today and ask for us and the team lets them know we are on the truck or not there but you realize the impact you have when they seek you out. When covid hit we had to let all our teams go and Joe and I worked the shop together ourselves. We were the faces being posted on social during the time connecting once again with our followers. The community would bring in donations and purchases gift cards, merchandise, and anything to help us get by. In our eyes, this is how we knew we already won- when the community fights for you to stay.
It is alot of factors that go into building your brand but ultimately it is YOU.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.simplydonedonuts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplydonedonuts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimplyDoneDonuts
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/simply-done-donuts-duluth-2